Dear John: Many of your assumptions and your comparisons of crude oil to gasoline are incorrect.

The main comparisons you look at are in non-summer months.

Being that it’s July and you are making comparisons to November and January levels of West Texas Intermediate (oil) and gasoline, you forget a major difference.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires much more stringent gasoline in warmer months. Reformulated (summer) gasoline runs anywhere from 15 cents to 30 cents per gallon more than winter gasoline.

In addition, the drop in crude oil prices has been recent. There’s generally a considerable lag before that drop is reflected at the pump. So if oil drops $10 a barrel today, it won’t be fully realized at the pump for several weeks.

You can’t look at just one day and make hasty comparisons. You also must consider recent trends. You need to compare them to the slumping gasoline demand of November 2008, in the midst of recession. Demand is through the roof right now, and combined with summer gasoline prices, there’s a large difference.

January sees paltry gasoline demand too. Add in the difference in winter and summer gasoline prices and it’s almost a wash. The media does people no service when they oversimplify the price of oil and such, but one should realize that reconciling crude and gasoline prices can be much more complex than monitoring the price of barrels.

Hope that helps explain some of it. Patrick Dehann, GasBuddy.com.

Dear Patrick: I recently said in a column that gasoline was overpriced by 45 cents to 60 cents based on the recent drop in oil prices. I compared today’s prices to when oil was similarly priced in 2007 and 2008.

Your main point is that summer gas costs between 15 cents and 30 cents more to produce than winter gas because of environmental standards.

OK, I’ll buy that. So I’ll correct myself. Instead of being overpriced by 45 cents to 60 cents, gasoline is only 30 cents to 45 cents too high when you factor in the expense of the environmental standards.

Your next point: The declining price of oil doesn’t show up at the pump immediately. Why? When oil prices are rising, the increase shows up immediately at the gasoline pump. The only reason gasoline prices are “sticky,” as they say, on the way down is that oil refiners are trying to keep their profits up.

Refiners are gouging consumers when the market goes against them. And gouging consumers when oil prices are going their way.

If what you say is true, then we should be seeing the full 60-cents or so drop in gasoline prices in a few weeks. Surely by fall, when gasoline is reformulated, prices should be in the $2-a-gallon range.

How much do you want to bet the full benefit of lower oil prices isn’t seen by consumers?

Now let me get to your point of the media misleading people by oversimplifying the energy situation.

Here are the facts, simple as they are.

The world economy is weak. All the arguments that China’s economy alone would suck up all the world’s available energy resources have proved false. The theory of “peak oil” — that the world was running out — was nonsense. Goldman Sachs’ call that oil prices (now under $50 a barrel) would spike to $200 was — to say the least — misinformed.

To make the argument that it’s summer and people are using a lot of gasoline is misleading and simplistic. The world is awash in oil and gasoline. Long term, prices are coming down. And there is nothing the oil industry can do about it.

And with technological advances in the automotive industry — electric and hydrogen cars, hybrids, etc. — it is more likely that oil will fall to $10 a barrel than rise to $200.
If anyone is misleading the public, it’s the energy industry and its apologists.

I’m glad you wrote. I felt like getting that off my chest. Happy motoring!

Dear John: I read your story about Linda Stasi losing her ring in a bathroom at the Daily News. As a plumber at Aqueduct Race track for 39 years, I have a little experience in lost rings.

I would suggest Linda ask the plumber in that building to open the trap plugs on the basins in the ladies room she was using. They could also take the basin off the wall and shake it upside down. The ring may not be there, but it’s worth a shot.

I hope she finds it. J.B.

Dear J.B.: We are all trying our best to find Linda’s $40,000 ring. So thanks.

Just to update all of you concerned citizens, Linda still hasn’t taken me up on the offer to polygraph the employees who might have swiped it. As you know, I have a polygraph expert and a private investigator ready to pounce once Linda and the Daily News give us the word.

Send your questions to Dear John, The New York Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.